As in:
Coach Sweeney, being an old-school gentleman, resolved the issue without further bloodshed and bickering. It was just an exhibition tournament for Chrissakes, he figured, let ‘em have it. Let’s just load up, collect our box lunches and empañadas from the clubhouse in Margarita and catch the train home.
When they’d resolved this, and placated the jut-jawed Cristobal coach and the horrified and ululating Polly Lifton, Sweeney said, in a most gentleman-like way, “I’m sorry again for all that bleeding on the court. I know how upsetting that was.”
To the extent that Pierce was in line to be the scapegoat for the whole fiasco, Beth Ann dispelled this by making a couple of astute points.
1) If Pierce was really intent on homicide with his overhead smash, Polly Lifton was a point blank target, and he did not aim at her.
2) It was Lucas who put himself in the line of fire at midcourt by actually coming in from the baseline while the ball was floating toward Pierce’s racquet.
But in this, she was really just being his lawyer. She knew how frustrated they both were, especially after her fall to court a few minutes earlier. Blood for blood was fine with her, but it wasn’t fine to indict her partner.
So, really, Beth Ann saved his ass that night and, among other things, this made it possible for him to relax on the way home and start trading snippets of conversation and jokes with Meg, a playful conversation that started as the train took the big curve near Gatun.
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